Looking for a Christmas Miracle
by Avirra
Summary: A snowy area of scenic countryside with a river flowing through it. An idyllic winter scene? Not when there's a chance your partner is somewhere underneath that icy water.
1. Seek and Ye Shall Find

The snow started falling again as Napoleon careful drove down the slick country road, The mission that Illya was on should have been a simple one. Meet up with a contact, pickup what they had for Headquarters and bring it back. Simple. But he had learned long ago that even the most basic mission could go sour quickly where THRUSH was involved.

In this case, the complications began before Illya arrived. Their contact had been compromised and was in a fight with THRUSH agents when Illya found him. Together they managed to overcome the agents, but not before their contact was fatally wounded. He managed to pass on his message and his package to Illya before succumbing to his wounds.

Illya quickly left that area and called in, informing Mister Waverly of the death of their contact and that THRUSH had been on to him. Mister Waverly ordered him to head back immediately and required him to do a check-in call once an hour. Missing his first one caused concern, but with the weather turning bad, it was thought that with concentrating on the road, Illya might simply have lost track of time. When he also missed the second one, it was cause for alarm. Even if his watch had stopped working, Illya would have to have known that at least an hour had passed.

The second missed check-in was what got Napoleon permission to activate the homing device in Illya's communicator pen. Starting near Illya's last known location, Napoleon was following the signal as it slowly grew stronger.

By signal strength, Napoleon was within a mile of Illya now. Looking ahead, he felt his heart contract. Emergency vehicles - A tow truck, a poiice cruiser and an ambulance were gathered near the remains of a bridge that had once gone over the icy river to the eastern side of the road. Carefully pulling off the road out of the way of the worker, Napoleon shut off his engine and opened his door.

Pulling up the collar on his coat and grabbing his hat, he made his way over to the policeman on the scene.

"Excuse me, but a friend of mine had been coming this way to meet me and he's late. Has there been an accident?"

At the way the policeman was studying him, Napoleon decided he should show his identification. After giving Napoleon's card a quick study, the policeman looked back to the water.

"There was an incident, but I don't know that I'd call it an accident, Mister Solo. See that house on the hill? Old man Jackson and his wife heard something they said sounded like a car backfiring. They went to the window to see if somebody was having car trouble and saw this big black car pushing against a smaller blue car. Johnson called us immediately, but before he even finished calling, the black car had pushed the other car far enough on the old bridge that another section of it gave way and took the car down into the river with it. Black car just backed up then and drove away like nothing had happened. Heck, if the Johnsons hadn't seen it, likely no-one would have known anything did happen until spring. Snow already has most of the tire marks covered up."

Seeing the stricken look on Napoleon's face as he looked toward the water, the policeman laid a hand on Napoleon's shoulder.

"Your friend drive a blue car?"

Nodding his head, Napoleon heard the winch of the tow truck start pulling. For the first time in his life, he hoped his partner had been captured by THRUSH. That would be far preferable to being inside that car in the river.

_to be continued . . ._


	2. Ask and It Shall Be Given

(Continuation of 12/9/14 picfic - Looking for a Christmas Miracle)

Napoleon Solo was not a man that prayed often, but when the car he knew for certain had been the one Illya had been driving rose from its watery grave, he said one - then when the police reported the car was empty, he said a second one to say thanks. There was always a chance Illya had been tossed into the water separate from the car, but the odds are increased of his partner being alive.

He asked the police which was the way to the nearest town, thanked them and headed for it. If he had captured an enemy agent in this sort of weather, he would head to the nearest town to find a place to secure his prisoner and hole up until the weather improved.

The snow grew heavier and Napoleon quickly realized that he would need to search for what he was looking for on foot. The time was now standing at three hours since the last check-in.

Carefully parking, Napoleon's thrust his hands into his pockets and hunched over as he began his slow walk down the sidewalks of the town. The snow had already filled in any recent tire tracks, but that was were his hope lay. He wasn't hunched over due to the cold - well, not entirely due to the cold - but because he was glancing underneath the parked cars that he was passing by. Those that had been parked since before the snow started would be clear of everything but blown snow.

He neared a car that looked to be a likely suspect. For one, it matched the vague description given of the car that had shoved Illya's into the water. Second, it had been parked over the snow. A glance to the building, which appeared to be a residence, showed something else strange. The walk had only been half-shoved and the snow shovel had been dropped to the ground and was now barely visible under the snow that had fallen since it had been left there.

The snow was Napoleon's friend in another way now as it was falling so thickly that it would hide most of his movements as he moved slightly past the building the car was parked in front of and then left the sidewalk to circle around to the rear of the structure. The sound of children crying seemed to be coming from a basement window which made Napoleon suspect his worst case scenario was true - the THRUSH agents had seen an innocent shoveling the walk and forced them inside. That meant an unknown number of innocents in danger as well as his partner.

Moving to a spot where he was both shielded from sight of the house and the wind, Napoleon contacted Mister Waverly with a full update and his suspicions of where Illya was being held and the citizens who seemed unwillingly involved. As he both expected and dreaded, there was no viable way to provide him with backup until the weather broke, but one the weather did break, they were bound to move Illya immediately.

Mister Waverly expressed his trust in Solo's resourcefulness and wished him luck before signing off. Looking back toward the building as he tucked his communicator back away, Napoleon took a moment to compose himself and then began to formulate a plan.

_tbc . . . ._


	3. Knock and the Door will be Opened

A part of Napoleon wanted the rescue the crying children immediately, but if the innocents were all locked downstairs, then there would be that much less chance of them getting injured accidently when Napoleon made his move. A flickering light caught his eyes and led him to a tiny window. It was grimy, but it gave him a view of the basement area.

It took a minute or two to allow his eyes to adjust. The only light in the basement was coming from numerous candles, some of which seemed to have been burning for while by the amount of wax that had run off of them. He could make out two older children and a woman holding and attempting to comfort a smaller child in her lap. A still figure was laying beside her and Napoleon drew in a sharp breath as he recognized Illya.

He strained his eyes, but Napoleon saw no sign of anyone else in the basement. That done, he silently made his way to the back door. Preparing to try to listen in, he winced instead as first a television set was cranked to what sounded like fully volume followed by a man's bellowing voice saying to turn it down.

Taking advantage of the sudden noises, Napoleon tried the back door and smiled grimly as he found it wasn't locked. The THRUSH agents hadn't bothered to go through and secure the entire house. Of course, they weren't expecting anyone to be on their trail, so why would they? Their mistake, Napoleon's gain.

Readying his weapon, Napoleon considered the size of the car. Illya had been in there with them - well, they could have possibly stuffed him into the trunk. Illya in the trunk would mean up to five THRUSHies. Safer to assume six in case they were packed in tightly.

As he crept further into the home, Napoleon listened in to the argument.

"Didn't I tell you not two minutes ago to turn that thing down, Stan?"

"I have to have it loud. That kid crying is making me crazy and you said I couldn't go down and shut her up."

"Fine, turn it up enough to drown out the kid, but it doesn't need to be at full blast for that. Where's Harold?"

"In the can. And Calvin's grabbing a nap."

"So who's guarding the basement door?"

"Don't be such a worry-wart. Nobody's getting through that door, Mike. It's locked plus we drug that sideboard in front of it. Even if they get past the lock, they'll never move that heavy hunk of furniture out of the way."

The two began another argument, this time over setting up watches for the night. Convinced a pink elephant could make it to the stairs without notice, Napoleon took off his shoes and shoes to avoid excess noise and then took the chance of heading up the stairs himself.

One of the bedroom doors was slightly open. It was quick work to send a sleeping dart into the already sleeping agent to ensure he would stay down for awhile. Next he moved to a door that light was showing under. Smirking, Napoleon rapped on the door.

There was a grumbling followed by a flushing and then water running in the sink briefly before the doorknob began to turn.

"For Pete's sake, you couldn't have wait . . ."

By the time it dawned on Harold that the man in front of him wasn't one of his fellow agents, Napoleon had already fired the next dart. Harold stared for another moment, then collapsed to the floor.

Napoleon drug Harold to the bedroom that Calvin was in, then took a couple of minutes to make sure each man was secured before easing his way back downstairs. He didn't bother announcing himself or bother to interrupt their fight, he simply moved quickly into position and fired at each man in rapid succession. As he moved to secure them as well, Napoleon gave Stan a pat on the shoulder.

"Mike was right, you know. You really needed someone to keep watch. Not that I didn't appreciate the lack of a guard, mind you."

Moving to the sideboard, Napoleon found that Stan had been correct about one thing - it was a heavy hunk of furniture, but he finally managed to scoot it far enough to access the door. Searching for the ley would have taken longer than picking the lock, so Napoleon quickly put his tools to use.

Once the door was open, he shivered at the cold breeze. Not only were the candles the only light, they were the only heat as well. It only took a minute for Napoleon to calm the frightened mother who then passed her young daughter to her eldest son and helped Napoleon carry his partner up the narrow stairs and into the warmth.

The mother, Caroline, sent the children into the kitchen, asking the eldest to put the tea kettle on after she helped settle Illya onto the couch. The THRUSH agents made her nervous even in their current condition, but she steadied her nerves and helped Napoleon carry them into the bedroom where the other two were so that the children wouldn't have to see them.

As she gathered pillows and blankets to bring down, Napoleon went to work and picked the locks on the handcuffs restraining Illya's wrists behind his back. Settling down on the couch himself, Napoleon pulled Illya against him, smiling and thanking Caroline as she wrapped one of the thick blankets around the two of them. He also gladly accepted a cup of steaming hot chocolate a few minutes later.

The twitching of his nose at the smell of the chocolate was the first sign of life Napoleon saw and he encouraged his partner to wake, promising to share the hot drink with him if he did. The blue eyes finally opened, but the glassy look told Napoleon that Illya had very likely been drugged. Even so, he managed to get Illya alert enough to take a few sips before he faded back to sleep.

The three children had drank hot chocolate as well and were in a huddle under a pile of blankets together. Caroline saw how exhausted Napoleon looked and assured him that there was no way that she was going to get any sleep while those four animals were in her house. Promising to wake him at the slightest sound of trouble, she watched as Napoleon made sure Illya was still completely covered before drifting off.

It was actually the sound of Mark's voice that woke Napoleon. The storm had broken during the night and Mister Waverly had sent a cleanup crew to take away the THRUSH agents and their vehicle. Mark and April had come to see to the family and bring Napoleon and Illya back. Caroline was relieved when the THRUSH agents were gone and shocked as Mark gave her an envelope. Technically, the funds were a compensation amount, but Mark recognized in the young widow some of his own mother's fierce pride, so he told her the money was her share the reward money that had been offered on one of the me that had been taken away.

Flabbergasted, she tried to offer some of it to Napoleon, but he smiled as said that, as an employee, he wasn't allowed to share in rewards and he urged her instead to use the funds to give herself and her children a Christmas feast.

Illya was still not steady enough to walk unassisted, so Caroline insisted that they take one of the blankets along to keep him warm on their trip back. Illya thanked her most sincerely and was both cocooned in the blanket and asleep before Mark had even driven a mile. Napoleon had retrieved his own car and followed behind them as the snow began to fall again, but this time, big fluffy flakes were falling slowly, drifting and spinning on the light breeze.

Turning on the radio, Napoleon smiled as he heard "I'll be Home for Christmas". And they would be. He'd said another silent prayer as he watched the car ahead of him. He'd already gotten his Christmas wish.


End file.
